SSS salary loans rise to P30.5 billion last year

MANILA, Philippines — State-run Social Security System (SSS) said it has released more than P30.5 billion in salary loans in 2018, benefiting over 1.8 million member-borrowers.

In a statement, SSS president and chief executive officer Aurora Ignacio said salary loan acquisition rose by 5.3 percent to P30.5 billion in 2018 from around P28.96 billion in 2017 as more borrowers used electronic facilities to access their loan proceeds.

“We are glad that we are able to help more of our members on their financial needs in the form of salary loans,” Ignacio said.

According to the SSS, more than 166,000 or 9.2 percent of the loan releases last year were disbursed through the Union Bank of the Philippines’ Quick Card.

This is almost triple compared with the 55,835 recorded in 2017.

“Over the years, we have seen that more members opt to receive their salary loan proceeds through electronic means since they do not have to wait for their checks to be delivered to their houses or offices and go personally to the bank to encash the check,” Ignacio said.

With this, Ignacio said the SSS has decided to further expand its salary loan releases thru-the bank program by installing more UnionBank kiosks in more SSS branches nationwide.